How to customize your QR code colors

QR codes & printsAll plans

A plain black-and-white QR code works everywhere, but it doesn’t have to look like a parking ticket. You can recolor the code and its background to match your stationery, or make the background transparent so it sits cleanly on any design. The one rule: keep the contrast strong, because a code that’s pretty but won’t scan helps nobody.

Plan: All plans · Where: Overview → Your one code → Download

Before you start

  • Know your wedding colors. Hex codes (like #4A5D4F) give the cleanest match, and the color fields accept them directly.
  • Have your own phone ready to test-scan. The popup itself warns you: “Please test QR Code before downloading to ensure colors are eligible to scan.”

Steps

  1. Open the download popup. On your event’s Overview, find the Your one code card and click Download. The Download QR Code popup opens.

    the Download QR Code popup in its default black-on-white state

  2. Pick a background color. Next to Background Color:, click the color swatch to use the picker, or type a hex code straight into the field. The preview updates live.

  3. Or go transparent. Click Set Transparent to remove the background entirely. This is the option to use when the code will sit on top of your own design or patterned paper: the code adopts whatever is behind it.

    the popup with Set Transparent highlighted and the checkered transparent preview visible

  4. Pick the code color. Next to QR Code Color:, choose the color of the squares themselves. Dark code on a light background is the reliable combination: scanners expect dark modules on a light field, so avoid flipping it to white-on-dark.

  5. Test before you download. Point your phone camera at the preview on screen. If the link banner pops up within a second or two, your colors scan. If nothing happens, darken the code color or lighten the background until it does.

  6. Click “Download”. You get a PNG with your colors baked in. Transparent backgrounds stay transparent in the file.

What you should see

A QR code that looks like it belongs on your stationery and still scans instantly. If you went transparent, drop it onto your design and test again there: the background it lands on is now part of the contrast equation.

If something goes wrong

  • The code won’t scan after recoloring: the contrast is too low. Two pastels never work together; keep the code several shades darker than its background, or return to black on white for print.
  • It scans on screen but not on paper: printers darken and dull colors. Print one test page and scan that before committing to a full run. See How to test your QR code before printing.
  • The transparent version shows a white box: the design tool you pasted it into flattened the transparency. Re-insert the PNG directly rather than copy-pasting it.